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As long as the current coaches remain, that's who we'll be - good but never challenging for championships. I think Slick Rick finds that frustrating because the facilities and support are top notch and we've seen teams like Baylor consistently achieve more success.
I agree with this statement. I think our overall package (academics, location, facilities, resources, conference) are probably top-25ish but not top-10 and although that is a very subjective opinion, IF it is correct then being top-15ish every year is slightly overachieving.
That said, as pointed out, Baylor has done more with less.
To be fair, the rules now limit overaged internationals so we're not going to see Baylor or anyone else winning a national championship with a bunch of 25 year-old Germans. We are also not properly situated to recruit a team full of Americans good enough to win it all. That's not a slight - very few schools are and we will be able to get great Texas kids and some out-of-staters, but we're probably not beating USC and UF for CA and FL kids.
I think Denton's "Come play for me and I'll get you to the US Open Main Draw" pitch has run its course. That's not to say we won't keep getting great players that want to play pro tennis, but I don't think many 18 year-olds care that he was a top-10 player. He's certainly not going out there and beating them in baseline games the way Peter Smith at USC does. Not for a long while now.
I'm not saying you have to be the silver fox Pete Carroll of tennis the way Smith is to win a NC, but appearances matter. At the same time Brian Boland at UVA looks like a bridge troll and was a pretty pedestrian player himself but is the hardest working guy in tennis, hires great assistants, and gets it done.
I think Denton does a pretty good job. We could do worse. I do think he'd be better off with a younger assistant fresh off the tour or at least fresh off of a great playing career, or a young go-getter that would travel around the world getting him top international talent.
I think if we're going to beat USC, we're going to have to do it with 3-4 international studs in the lineup. Like it or not, we're never going to be a Final 4 team without some Euro guns up top. Making that happen takes an incredible amount of hard work. With nearly every kid in the world being accessible via internet, Denton's "connections" don't mean as much as they used to when Virginia has some hustling assistant making 15 international recruiting trips per year. You know McKinley and Denton ain't doing that. Traveling to the majors every year and sitting in the stands and calling it recruiting just isn't cutting it. Anyway that's my long-winded opinion.
IMO Denton has the job as long as he wants it if he continues to be as successful as he has been. It would be nice to have someone that hustled more and I do think we could do better. I have no axe to grind with Denton. I wish he wasn't a sip and I wish he wasn't so fat but he seems like a nice enough guy and if he won big I'd like him just the same. I do think someone on the staff under the age of 50 and who doesn't use a continental grip would be a good move.